If the impression provided by the budget debate on Wednesday is not deceptive, then the Bundeswehr will probably have to wait a little longer for its "special fund".

In the general debate, the debate on the chancellor's budget, opposition leader Friedrich Merz set six conditions for an amendment to the Basic Law, with which the federal government wants to secure one hundred billion euros for the Bundeswehr.

The conditions were largely known, their tenor: clear purpose;

clear involvement of the opposition;

clear repayment period;

Two percent goal not just temporarily, but always.

The CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader can set such tough conditions.

His faction is needed for a two-thirds majority, but fears that it will only serve as a majority procurer.

Because it's like vaccination.

Olaf Scholz cannot count on closed ranks in the traffic light coalition on this issue either.

Merz therefore also made this a condition: the coalition must stand united behind the change in the Basic Law.

It is uncertain whether all this will succeed.

In any case, the SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich did not sound like that.

The CDU/CSU parliamentary group could not expect that Mützenich would already agree to their conditions.

However, Mützenich's speech did not seem as if he could accept it and as if he could one day get his group to vote as one.

First of all, it must be clarified which tasks the Bundeswehr should perform at all.

This can take a while.

Same mistakes as back then?

Merz and Mützenich only touched on one point: the economic plan for the use of the special fund should not be drawn up without parliamentary control.

The question is whether the opposition can have a say in this.

That was also one of the conditions that Merz set.

The Federal Chancellor also avoided these conditions, but at least conceded that it was “okay” that they would be made.

He maintained that strengthening "alliance and defense capability" was a "clear purpose" for the special fund.

That is exactly what the Union faction denies.

She suspects alternatives in the direction of projects that have little to do with the Bundeswehr, but are in the sense of a very broad red-green security policy.

In this regard, too, the Union should feel vindicated by Mützenich's speech.

Mützenich concluded the "military" part of his speech with the remark that social-democratic politics helped to end the Cold War.

"This is exactly the path we will take," said Mützenich.

So does she want to make the same mistakes as back then?

The memory of the SPD regularly avoids the fact that Chancellor Helmut Schmidt fell because he wanted to use other means than just detente, means of deterrence, which led to success at the time and are neglected today.

Mützenich was probably only thinking about détente and Willy Brandt.

However, he could at least rely on a well-equipped Bundeswehr.

After this debate, it is uncertain where the “turning point in time” will lead.

The traffic light coalition and Olaf Scholz can count on the fact that the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and Friedrich Merz do not want to be the ones who fail to equip the Bundeswehr.

Merz can count on the fact that Scholz cannot afford to have his billion-dollar commitment caught between the parliamentary millstones and crushed.

On Wednesday, however, the crunching was unmistakable.